Rose: Recapping the 2015 Jerry Malloy Conference in Pittsburgh
From Michael B. Rose at the New Pittsburgh Courier on August 27, 2015, with mention of SABR members George Skornickel, James Brunson, and Leslie Heaphy:
Nallelie Vega is a grad student at the University of San Francisco working on her Masters project on the decrease of African American players in baseball.
“I figured this would be an excellent conference to attend just because it gives great historical background on Negro Leagues and Black baseball in America,”
James Brunson, former vice president of Northern Illinois University gave a presentation on Black baseball in the Pittsburgh/Allegheny area from 1870 to 1899 and has a book coming out this year called Black baseball 1858- 1900.
“I’m more so interested in the cultural aspects of Black baseball: who these people were, what were the communities like,” he said. “The significant thing about the period that I am looking at is trying to resurrect the history of Black baseball and Black players during an era in history that is difficult to research. So one of the stops on the journey is obviously Pittsburgh because it was a vital area where great Black baseball players came from.”
Over the span of two days conference attendees were treated to a special tour of PNC Park and saw a Pirates-Dodgers game; took part in a lively Negro Leagues trivia contest and listened to a panel on how to do Negro Leagues research. One of the highlights’ for all of the attendees was a one-hour session with Robert “Bob” Paige, son of Hall of Famer Satchel Paige in which he talked about his father’s rivalry with Negro-League legend Josh Gibson and stories his father had from the road.
Read the full article here: http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/08/27/negro-leagues-baseball-convention-held-in-pittsburgh/
Originally published: August 27, 2015. Last Updated: August 27, 2015.